When it comes to sourcing information from discussion boards, each top thread is effectively the one and only time the algorithm will interact with that thread

When it comes to sourcing information from discussion boards, each top thread is effectively the one and only time the algorithm will interact with that thread for that topic. Unless each thread is monitored and updated by a small subset of power users when weighting for reputation matters, it is likely that the persons managing a thread are volunteers at the scene of breaking news or have been (self-)coopted into that role by circumstances. Such self selected thread managers can safely be treated as a one-time participant in the prisoner's dilemma game. If this is true, the algorithm can safely assume that the other prisoner (the "thread") is going to betray them and so, betray them first by low-weighting them. Of course, you use some sort of reputation for the source of the threads - for breaking tech news, a GitHub issue tracker is probably going to be a better tracker than an HN thread than a general purpose Reddit thread than a 4chan thread.